Ballantyne is a surname of Scottish Gaelic origin, with variant spellings Balentyne, Ballantine, Ballintine, Ballentyne, and Ballendine.[1] Other variants include Bellenden and Ballentine,[2] and Bannatyne and Ballantyne have been interchangeably even by the same person at different times.[3]
It is a habitational surname, probably derived from the Gaelic baile an deadhain, meaning "the dean's farmstead". Its most probable location is Bellenden, now spelt Bellendean, on Ale Water, west of Roberton in Roxburghshire, but there may be more than one location origin, as there is Bellenden in Selkirk, and a village called Ballintoun, in Stirlingshire. The name has often been associated with Falkirk and Edinburgh as well as Roxburghshire.[1][2]
William Arthur, in An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names, with an Essay on their Derivation and Import (1857) suggested that the name denoted "a place of ancient pagan worship", derived from the Celts, who worshipped the sun, called Belen or Baal.[4][3]
Early recordings of the name include John Ballenden (also spelt Ballentyne and Ballantyne), archdeacon of Moray around 1450,[2] and Sir Alexander Balendin, who was provost of Methven in 1563.[1]
Notable people with the surname spelt Ballantyne include:
Colin Ballantyne (born 1951), Scottish geomorphologist, geologist, and physical geographer
David Ballantyne (1924–1986), New Zealand journalist, novelist and short-story writer
Edith Ballantyne (1922–2025), Czech-born Canadian executive secretary/president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom from 1969 to 1998
This page lists people with the surnameBallantyne. If an internal link intending to refer to a specific person led you to this page, you may wish to change that link by adding the person's given name(s) to the link.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
